]]>http://www.vg247.com/2015/01/30/watch-the-first-gameplay-footage-for-sid-meiers-starships/feed/0XCOM: Enemy Unknown appears to be in testing on Steam for Linux nowhttp://www.vg247.com/2014/05/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-appears-to-be-in-testing-on-steam-for-linux-now/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/05/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-appears-to-be-in-testing-on-steam-for-linux-now/#commentsThu, 08 May 2014 11:03:10 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=470392XCOM: Enemy Unknown looks like it’s coming to Steam for Linux, as suggested to changes posted on the Steam Database.

This entry makes specific mention of “XCOM: Enemy Unknown Mac and Linux for Beta Testing,” and was added to the datatbase six days ago.

Firaxis and 2K have yet to confirm XCOM: Enemy Unknown for Linux, but we’ve shot them an email to see what’s-what.

Stay tuned.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/05/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-appears-to-be-in-testing-on-steam-for-linux-now/feed/0Civilization 5: Brave New World’s launch trailer shows the birth of industryhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/06/28/civilization-5-brave-new-worlds-launch-trailer-shows-the-birth-of-industry/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/28/civilization-5-brave-new-worlds-launch-trailer-shows-the-birth-of-industry/#commentsFri, 28 Jun 2013 11:38:15 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=383531Civilization 5’s first expansion Brave New World is out today, and developer Firaxis has released an epic new launch trailer that shows the birth of industry, the spread of culture and the rise of commerce.

Are you picking up the DLC today? Let us know below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/28/civilization-5-brave-new-worlds-launch-trailer-shows-the-birth-of-industry/feed/0XCOM: Enemy Unknown hits iOS June 20, is expensivehttp://www.vg247.com/2013/06/17/xcom-enemy-unknown-hits-ios-june-20-is-expensive/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/17/xcom-enemy-unknown-hits-ios-june-20-is-expensive/#commentsMon, 17 Jun 2013 12:33:43 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=379612XCOM: Enemy Unknown has been dated for an iOS release on June 20. It’ll cost $20 in the States, £13.99 in the UK & 17.99 Euros across Europe, and while that’s a lot of money bear in mind the game is almost a direct port of the console and PC game that launched last year.

Gamespot reports that the strategy title will launch on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, and that cloud saves will let you pick up your game regardless of which format you’re using.

The only caveat is that the game’s multiplayer mode will not be available at launch, but will appear after launch as a free update.

What do you think of the asking price? Are you tempted? Let us know below.

Ace Patrol

You can play the first six missions of the British campaign for free, and then pay for additional pilots, skins and missions after that.

It’s a turn-based hex strategy game that places importance on movement, with many real pilot manoeuvres from the first World War. Flanking, passing and turning are all crucial.

Although you control a squad of four pilots, there is no perma-death. Sorry XCOM fans.

Last year, Firaxis showed the world with XCOM: Enemy Unknown that it had the chops to create a deep strategy game using console-based UI and control methods.

Historically the realm of the mouse and keyboard, the hardcore strategy genre is both enticing yet intimidating for those who fear being bogged down in myriad mechanics and reams of data.

I for one can’t fathom playing a game like Civilization V. I get stressed when trying to ignore side missions in GTA games for goodness sake. But even though XCOM’s base management frazzled my mind at the outset, I endured and it became less scary with each turn.

Now, Firaxis has turned its hand to the iOS strategy market once more in Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol, a flight combat game that uses a simple touch control system to create something intuitive and accessible, but no less tactical than its forebears.

I spoke with the game’s lead producer Lena Brenk just before Ace Patrol launched, to discuss the challenge of broadening the strategy genre’s appeal without alienating hardcore fans. Brenk stressed that the concept came from Sid Meier’s interest in bringing the Firaxis strategy format to a small, contained but deep strategic experience.

“It was a learning experience”, Brenk suggested, “because we know how to do fun gameplay in the strategy genre. Doing this for a different format was a learning curve, but also a very exciting one.

“Many of the guys working at Firaxis obviously play on mobile devices, but the timeframe it takes to develop mobile titles is much smaller, so communication structures need to be different – more direct – to cope with that. Everything’s a bit more condensed and intense”.

While the Ace Patrol team was separate to the same group that developed XCOM: Enemy Unknown, there are stark differences between how both teams work. Brenk felt that having a smaller team working on the game led to an open hierarchy, with more room for quick discussion and brainstorming.

The end result is a turn-based game that absolutely does offer a wide range of strategic tenets, from grid-based movement, special high-flying manoeuvres and management over your pilots. Yet it doesn’t get mired down in complex control functions. I asked Brenk about the complexities of Ace Patrol’s movement mechanic.

“It’s hex and turn-based,” Brenk replied. “So you move all your planes in each turn then your opponent takes their turn. It’s a lot to do with getting in the right position and anticipating where the enemy will go so you end up behind them, or to flank them.

“Different aircraft can do different manoeuvres, they might turn in a smaller radius – which is important when trying to turn around as fast as possible. So it’s about using those manoeuvres to get into position so that you don’t get shot at, but can still fire at the enemy”.

It’s maybe just me but by this point in our conversation my feeble, non-strategic mind was already racing at the intricacies of Ace Patrol’s movement alone. But it’s certainly interesting, and coupled with individual pilots capable of pulling off different stunts and skills, the formula simply grew deeper.

“You start with one ace that you pick out of a selection of four, and they all have different special skills,” Brenk explained. “For example you can use clouds to hide in battle, but then you can’t do any of the really intricate manoeuvres like loops, the Immelmann turn or other high-end moves. But one special skill is that you can do those moves while in clouds. I like that one a lot.

“Others help you in between missions. So when you crash, your plane gets repaired quicker, meaning you can return to missions faster as that pilot. It’s a bit different depending on your approach – how offensive or defensive you usually play”.

Don’t worry about pilots being downed however, there’s no perma-death like in XCOM. The lightest penalty is they have to sit on the bench for a while as their plane is being repaired, but if shot down over enemy territory they may wind up in a prisoner of war camp, or hospitalised if on friendly soil. The length of penalties depends on your difficulty level.

It’s clear Ace Patrol is a game brimming with strategic elements, and given the critically success of XCOM last year, I asked Brenk if both her team and the XCOM mobile teams had much in the way of overlap or knowledge sharing during the game’s development.

“I don’t think anyone ever switched teams aside from one UI engineer,” Brenk recalled, “but at Firaxis we do communicate quite a bit between teams, just because it was a learning experience for us to take the mobile approach, and to find out what works and what doesn’t. The games aren’t so different, but in the end we took different approaches”.

“They’re different beasts, so I think the challenges the XCOM team had were very different. Because we were making a new IP we didn’t have to respect any old game that was already there and already revered by players. As it was new, the challenges were in the user interface, and communicating that to the player.

“If you look at Civilization, and how many tools we have – that’s not an option on mobile because you don’t have a mouse. Because you can’t ‘mouse over’ elements, how do you communicate all the information?”

Regardless of logistical and design challenges between mouse and keyboard strategy games, when compared to console games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization Revolution, there does seem to be a growing resurgence in the turn-based strategy genre. I closed our chat by asking Brenk if the feeling around Firaxis was the same.

“We’ve done a lot of turn-based games,” Brenk concluded. “We love those games, and we never quite felt they were dead anyway. So for us it’s exciting at the moment to see that it can be more accessible than it was a few years ago.

“For us it feels natural in mobile – the way you just take your turn and then send it over to friends to take their turn. That’s a natural thing that works very well, so for us it’s exciting to look at all those opportunities, and to see how fun gameplay can be had in a new medium.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/24/sid-meiers-ace-patrol-flying-strategy-to-new-heights/feed/5Haunted Hollow from Firaxis out now on iOShttp://www.vg247.com/2013/05/02/haunted-hollow-from-firaxis-out-now-on-ios/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/02/haunted-hollow-from-firaxis-out-now-on-ios/#commentsThu, 02 May 2013 12:26:06 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=363373Haunted Hollow, the iPad and iPhone strategy title from Firaxis, is now available.

The “competitive, spooky, turn-based game,” has players building a mansion to summon vampires, mummies, werewolves and more to fight a collection of creatures while “simultaneously attempting to possess an unsuspecting town.”

Go head-to-head with rivals to scare townspeople, battle enemies, avoid angry mobs and seize control of the town.

Level-up with each monster’s own menacing skills and powers, in addition to a selection of power enhancements.

Play single-player or multi-player by challenging friends, both through the Game Center and with Pass & Play.

Choose from varying Haunted House architecture styles such as the ‘Lost Temple’ and ‘Mad Scientist’.

Haunted Hollow is now available for free to download from the App Store on iOS devices worldwide.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/02/haunted-hollow-from-firaxis-out-now-on-ios/feed/0Civ 5: Brave New World packshot revealedhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/05/01/civ-5-brave-new-world-packshot-revealed/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/01/civ-5-brave-new-world-packshot-revealed/#commentsWed, 01 May 2013 11:36:33 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=362941Civilization 5: Brave New World has been given its official packshot by publisher 2K Games. Feast your eyes on the expansion’s garb here.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/01/civ-5-brave-new-world-packshot-revealed/feed/1Haunted Hollow: Firaxis reveals iOS strategy game, debut art insidehttp://www.vg247.com/2013/03/21/haunted-hollow-firaxis-reveal-ios-strategy-game-debut-art/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/21/haunted-hollow-firaxis-reveal-ios-strategy-game-debut-art/#commentsThu, 21 Mar 2013 12:09:43 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=351405Haunted Hollow is the next game from XCOM developer Firaxis. It’s a strategy title heading to iOS devices that has a supernatural twist. Publisher 2K Games has released a piece of debut artwork to go along with the announcement.

Update:

Publisher 2K Games has now sent across a bullet-point list of game features. Best of all, the game is free-to-play.

Go head-to-head with rivals to scare townspeople, battle enemies, avoid angry mobs and seize control of the town

Power-up with each monster’s own menacing powers and additional enhancements

Play single-player or multi-player by challenging friends, both through the Game Center and with Pass & Play

Choose from varying Haunted House architecture styles such as the ‘Lost Temple’ and ‘Mad Scientist’

Let us know what you think below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/21/haunted-hollow-firaxis-reveal-ios-strategy-game-debut-art/feed/3“It’s a good thing” Firaxis’s 2003 X-COM reboot never happenedhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/01/29/its-a-good-thing-firaxiss-2003-x-com-reboot-never-happened/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/29/its-a-good-thing-firaxiss-2003-x-com-reboot-never-happened/#commentsTue, 29 Jan 2013 07:32:55 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=334063Firaxis’s Jake Solomon has said an earlier push to reboot X-COM ahead of 2012’s Enemy Unknown is probably better off in the prototype afterlife.

Speaking with Edge, Solomon said he tried to get an X-COM reboot off the ground in 2003, when he had just started in his career.

“It was awful. It’s a good thing it never went ahead,” he said.

“Because I was way too young, I had very little experience, and I just wasn’t in the right place to make that game. It really took a long time until it made sense for the team and for the company.”

Solomon said the plan at the time was to remake the original game with the same mechanics, plus a few extra features.

“We had to identify those things that make a game XCOM, and it’s very hard to do with a game that’s so big and emergent, and has all these complex systems in it,” he said of the failed attempt.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, on the other hand, is pretty great, and available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/29/its-a-good-thing-firaxiss-2003-x-com-reboot-never-happened/feed/1Civ V: “One World” expansion spotted on Steam Apps Databasehttp://www.vg247.com/2013/01/16/civ-v-one-world-expansion-spotted-on-steam-apps-database/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/16/civ-v-one-world-expansion-spotted-on-steam-apps-database/#commentsWed, 16 Jan 2013 10:41:43 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=330424Civilization V is rumoured to be receiving a new set of DLC. A listing for an expansion named “One World” exists on the Steam Apps Database, and was spotted by an eagle-eyed member of the 2K forum.

No other details are known about the potential update. Following on from Gods & Kings’ success, it would be exciting to see a whole bunch of new features from Firaxis.

For now, let’s hope this actually exists.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/16/civ-v-one-world-expansion-spotted-on-steam-apps-database/feed/1XCOM: Enemy Unknown has “really awesome” DLC coming in 2013http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/09/xcom-enemy-unknown-has-really-awesome-coming-in-2013/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/09/xcom-enemy-unknown-has-really-awesome-coming-in-2013/#commentsWed, 09 Jan 2013 20:19:01 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=328638XCOM: Enemy Unknown lead designer Jake Solomon has said to expect more DLC for the game this year, as Slingshot and Second Wave are just the start. “We do have more content coming in 2013,” he told Polygon. “We’re working on something really awesome.” A release window wasn’t provided, as Solomon said it will take the team “some time” to complete the work. Solomon did say, though, that the next DLC wouldn’t have the “limited scope” of the Slingshot DLC.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/09/xcom-enemy-unknown-has-really-awesome-coming-in-2013/feed/2XCOM: Enemy Unknown Second Wave DLC is free, due todayhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/01/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-second-wave-dlc-is-free-due-today/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-second-wave-dlc-is-free-due-today/#commentsTue, 08 Jan 2013 06:07:28 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=327949XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s second DLC pack is a free pile of game-altering options available right now.

The DLC is available now via Steam, and should arrive on console networks with regional updates. It adds 16 new options when starting a new game, and although some are only available having proved your skill, all add an element of risk and challenge to an already tricky game.

Damage Roulette: Weapons have a wider range of damage.

New Economy: Randomized council member funding.

Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats.

Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, stats increase randomly.

Red Fog: Combat wounds will degrade the soldier’s mission stats.

Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit.

The Greater Good: Psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien.

Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete.

Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases.

Firaxis has given several interviews (linked below) regarding the new DLC, which explain its decision to go with a free gameplay mechanic expansion rather than new story content like the first pack, Slingshot.

Speaking to Polygon, lead producer Garth DeAngelis said the new options are “for the fans” and were invented at regular play sessions during development. Firaxis didn’t have time to implement them before launch, but enjoyed them so much they pushed on post-release.

These additions are likely to have a profound effect on the game’s balance, and DeAngelis and the game’s director, Jake Solomon, admitted that they’ve taken a risk in potentially “toppling the tower” the development team took so long to build.

But the new options give a sense of “ownership”, the pair said, and as Solomon noted, purchasers “should be able to play however they want”.

“Though they are gone, they are not forgotten,” is the XCOM slogan promoting the interactive wall, which is open for submissions that allow for choice of armor and a weapon that represents the fallen heroes, courtesy of GameInformer. Friend’s images aren’t shown but circumstances of death, name, nationality and mission stats can all be posted.

Go here to honor the ones that have been lost, which also offers an option to tweet for the fallen.

Polygon reports that the pack will launch from December 4th at $6.99 / 560 Microsoft Points, and is the first of two packs promised by developer Firaxis.

The site adds that the DLC took them two hours to complete, and delivers a three-mission mini story arc that weaves into the core campaign, and offers you a new starting soldier with buffed stats. It features a Triad member called Zhang who wants protection in exchange for alien tech.

We’ll have more once the pack launches. What do you think of the concept so far?

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/30/xcom-enemy-unknown-slingshot-dlc-launches-next-week-features-triads/feed/1XCOM Enemy Unknown: Gollop praises developer’s ‘great job’http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/28/xcom-enemy-unknown-gollop-praises-developers-great-job/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/28/xcom-enemy-unknown-gollop-praises-developers-great-job/#commentsWed, 28 Nov 2012 12:45:36 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=319330XCOM: Enemy Unknown developer Firaxis had a mammoth task on its hands when attempting to reboot Julian Gollop’s original game UFO: Enemy Unknown. The team can relax however, as the 2K-published game has received Gollop’s blessing.

Speaking with Eurogamer Gollop said, “I think Firaxis has done a great job,”The game is addictive and absorbing, not to mention quite challenging on the classic difficulty setting.

“Most of their decisions have been pretty sensible,” he added, “and they have made a very console-friendly game. Overall I think they have preserved the essence of the original X-Com.”

Gollop wasn’t all smiles and sunshine about the game however, as he expressed some issue with the game’s geographical mapping, and the fact you can only have one base, rather than several around the globe, “One small disappointment is that the positions of events and bases in the world view have no relevance at all.

“I often get the feeling that some things are just too deliberately contrived. The three simultaneous abduction sites [of which the player can only respond to one] being the worst offender.

“The original X-Com had significantly more pseudo-random elements. However, it is clear that they have been following Sid Meier’s dictum that games are essentially about making interesting decisions. They have strived to make every decision have some kind of trade-off.”

Gollop also finds the Thin Men enemy type too comical.

What do you make of Firaxis’ XCOM reboot? Did it preserve the essence of the original game well? Let us know below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/28/xcom-enemy-unknown-gollop-praises-developers-great-job/feed/8XCOM: Enemy Unknown getting two pieces of single-player DLChttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/xcom-enemy-unknown-getting-two-pieces-of-single-player-dlc/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/xcom-enemy-unknown-getting-two-pieces-of-single-player-dlc/#commentsTue, 23 Oct 2012 20:12:55 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=309683XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be getting two pieces of single-player add-on content. In addition to these two add-on content packs, the Elite Soldier Pack, which was free to those who pre-ordered the game, is now available for purchase.

Before video games came along, where else were you going to get player-authored narratives? Pen-and-paper RPGs, maybe. But, man, am I glad to see it back in action.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about XCOM – to people who didn’t really get into the original, at least – is how personal the whole thing can get. Think about it: you’re the commander of an elite military unit defending the Earth from overwhelming alien invasion. You’re sending units into the meatgrinder, and you know it. In any other strategy game, where your units aren’t pre-made characters (lookin’ at you, Fire Emblem), you wouldn’t give a damn about your rookies. Blood for the blood god, and all that.

But XCOM makes you care about your troopers. Not in a “soldier playing a harmonica and speaking lovingly of home” kind of way, or in a “he was just two weeks from retirement” sense; nothing quite so blatant or crass. It does this, rather, in two major ways: purely through the game’s mechanics, and via dashes of narrative aesthetics.

The mechanics argument is a fairly simple one based entirely on utility, usefulness, and plain tactical worth. Squad sizes in XCOM are limited to six at the most, so every loss – even of the rookies – hurts deeply, at least while you’re still in the battle. Additionally, veteran troopers gain extremely useful abilities and stat upgrades as they rank up, ensuring they’re likely to be your most efficient killing machines in the battles to come. So, as you can imagine, losing any of them – the godlike sniper with squad sight, the experienced medic who could patch up wounds – is painful.

It’s aided by a liberal dosage of minor, largely aesthetic details, that nonetheless do wonders in helping players craft their own stories about the global war of aggression against an unknown alien threat. First and foremost: soldier names. That’s not just a rookie, a squaddie, or a heavy trooper with a rocket launcher. That’s Killian Lynch, Giorgio Tsoukalos and Marina Sokolova. It’s nothing more than assigning a human name to a collections of pixels and tactical options, but, admit it: naming something does something to the human mind.

If you don’t like the pre-assigned variables, you can customise them. Name them after your family, your friends, your co-workers or your enemies; after historical figures, after Power Rangers, after the development staff of the game – anything you want. You can change their faces, the look of their armour, dictate their colour scheme. It’s not pink, it’s light red, soldier! Even things you can’t modify – country of origin, for instance – these help make your troopers into something more than robots.

The first mission and opening sequence.

And these guys and girls aren’t disposable, no sir-ee. They’ll be with you mission after mission, from first contact to the final assault – if you’re skilful, and prepared, and more than a little bit lucky. They don’t just get better abilities as they survive, they gain nicknames, too, and stories. We call him Lockdown – he got off the ramp and didn’t move for two minutes, a sniper shot every three seconds, dead Mutons at our feet. She’s Nuke – why? Check out the rocket launcher and the grenades, and don’t ask stupid questions. Papa Bear? The man took three plasma shots to the chest and didn’t die, he’s got to be at least part ursine.

The best, most interesting part of all these little stories popping up is that none of it is scripted; none of it is laid down in stone, ahead of time, by a creative auteur who knows each and every thing that’s going to happen next. There’s a time and a place for those kinds of tales, but it ain’t here. This is emergent storytelling, people, a multitude of gameplay systems interlocking and pulling together and pushing against one another, with a fresh coat of just-enough-paint on it to fire up your imaginations. Admittedly, the kinds of stories it can tell are limited in scope – it’s pretty much all going to be in the general wheelhouse of killing or being killed by aliens – but it’s still something pretty damn special.

Not that I want to imply that XCOM is the originator of this style of storytelling. Obviously, the original X-com had it in spades; but you can see others of its ilk appear in games as diverse as FTL and Far Cry 2, from Minecraft to DEFCON. Before video games came along, where else were you going to get player-authored narratives? Pen-and-paper RPGs, maybe. But, man, am I glad to see it back in action. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing inherently wrong with the linear, movie-style, cutscene-driven stories we see in Assassin’s Creed, in Bioshock, in Call of Duty and elsewhere. But sometimes you just want to play in that sandbox and make your stories out of systems.

By the way, if you’re playing on Classic, build an extra satellite first thing out of the gate. You’ll thank me later.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown released yesterday in the US. It ships on Friday in Europe.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/10/xcom-enemy-unknown-we-who-are-about-to-die-salute-you/feed/11XCOM: Enemy Unknown demo now available on Steam, XBL, PSN soonhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/09/xcom-enemy-unknown-demo-now-available-on-xbox-live/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/09/xcom-enemy-unknown-demo-now-available-on-xbox-live/#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2012 13:14:39 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=305116XCOM: Enemy Unknown is out in the US today, and there’s a demo available on Xbox Live and Steam for the Firaxis title.

Hit up Steam to download the demo for PC, and expect it to arrive later today on PSN in the US. It will be available to try out in the UK through the service tomorrow, October 10.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/09/xcom-enemy-unknown-demo-now-available-on-xbox-live/feed/2XCOM: Enemy Unknown preps for launch with new trailerhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/04/xcom-enemy-unknown-preps-for-launch-with-new-trailer/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/04/xcom-enemy-unknown-preps-for-launch-with-new-trailer/#commentsThu, 04 Oct 2012 12:29:25 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=303617XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s launch trailer has been released by 2K. You know you want to watch it, so head below the break and make yourself happy. XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches in North American on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 9 and in Europe on October 12.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/04/xcom-enemy-unknown-preps-for-launch-with-new-trailer/feed/26XCOM: Enemy Unknown interactive tailer lets you make gameplay choiceshttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/01/xcom-enemy-unknown-interactive-tailer-lets-you-make-gameplay-choices/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/01/xcom-enemy-unknown-interactive-tailer-lets-you-make-gameplay-choices/#commentsMon, 01 Oct 2012 09:38:27 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=302222XCOM: Enemy Unknown has received a clever interactive trailer that talks you through the game’s tutorial mission and lets you make key gameplay choices as the action plays out. It’s rather clever’. Get playing now.

Turn-based strategy games still exist. In fact, they never really went away, but their numbers are dwindling. Even Final Fantasy gave up the backbone of its battle system a long time ago in favour of real-time speed. That simply wasn’t an option for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, according to lead designer at Firaxis Jake Solomon, and would have only spit on the legacy of the original.

VG247 caught up with the developer recently to learn more about what it is to make a solid turn-based strategy game at a time where fluidity and cinematic set-pieces are king. There’s also the little matter of XCOM’s multiplayer mode, which could prove to be one of the most stressful yet rewarding experiences this year. The demo released on Steam yesterday.

Turn-based strategy games are still out there, but real-time action is now at the forefront of the industry. Was there ever any doubt in your mind that a turn-based game like XCOM: Enemy Unknown would catch on again in this changed lanscape?

At different points my doubts were stronger I suppose, but yeah it’s interesting because as a designer you need to have a fair amount of confidence at the beginning, as you’re saying a bunch of things and you have no idea if they’re going to work.

But then you also need to be very open to saying ‘that thing we just did… that was terrible, we should change that’, and so you’re always treading that line. The one thing I never, ever doubted was that the game had to be turned based.

Like, I truly have made a lot of prototypes of this game and all of its game systems. We have messed with everything – every single system in there, I guarantee we’ve messed with – except for the fact that it had to be turn-based.

The reason is just because you have to have perma-death in this game. You just have to have it. The fact that your soldiers can die creates these real consequences in the game, and these really emotional highs and lows. Some games move in a different spectrum where you know that if you lost, you’d be OK with it and you’d just restart.

That’s fine because those games are fixated on telling a story, but then in XCOM because you know you can lose, your emotional highs ad lows are much bigger. That’s because when you succeed you feel great, especially if all your team has survived too, or say you survive with just one guy left.

But then when your favourite soldier dies, that’s a really emotional moment. You take a look at the game and say emotionally, ‘Wow, that totally fucked me’. The one other place you do get that same kind of high is in multiplayer games, and that’s why I think they’re so popular.

In other multiplayer games you have those highs because those consequences feel so real. Man that was a long answer [laughs].

That’s quite alright.

Well so for me, I had to have perma-death, because nobody’s going to accept a soldier dying if it’s real-time and you’re moving the soldier at that moment and he gets shot. ‘That’s an AI problem’ they’d say, and they’d feel cheated by the game.

But with turn-based, it’s a fair game. When the player turns a corner or does anything, then they take damage or get their soldier killed, the player can say, ‘I did that’, and ‘I could have done something differently.’

Can you tell us at what point you wanted multiplayer to be a part of the overall package, or was it always a consideration?

From the beginning I always wanted it because I like tactical and strategy games. It’s just something that – when we were trying to design the game – we actually played a lot of table-top games, which I had never actually done before XCOM.

But it makes a lot of sense, because XCOM is like a digital table-top game. So I started playing these games, like you know, Warhammer and stuff like that, and when we were doing that we looked at the points system they used that dictated how many units you could have on the board.

That was something that we saw at the start, and like this notion of taking your team and not playing against the AI, because the AI is not really trying to beat you at the same game – it’s just responding to you moving around the map.

But it’s very different when there’s another player out there saying ‘I’m going to kill every one of your team. My goal is to send everything I have at you and wipe you out.’ It’s just playing into the real tension of playing against friends, talking about strategies and putting them to work.

i think at the beginning I wasn’t so sure what multiplayer would be like, but I knew we were always going to have some form of multiplayer.

There has always been that tension in XCOM games, but ere you ever concerned that it would be watered down when playing against another human player?

Yeah, it’s really hard to match the tension of the original game, but the original game wasn’t as tactical as this game. I mean, it was tactical in its own way, but we have things like abilities an explicit cover system, bonuses for elevation, perks, passive perks and we just put a big tactical layer over the experience.

The original game would do things like having enemies being able to see further than you, so they would just shoot you from behind the fog of war. These were things that, at first you might not have understood, but in our game everything is very clear.

With the original game – I know how it works – but people typically didn’t understand why they were getting shot. That created huge amounts of tension in the original game, and put you in the dark – literally in the dark. You could take a step, get shot and be like ‘who the f**k was that?’

With our game we said, ‘it has to be tactical, but it also has to be fair’, as tactical games that aren’t fair, just aren’t tactical. We started moving our XCOM game toward fairness and that got us worried and thinking , ‘well hold on, is this still tense?’

It was a big struggle throughout development to give a sense of risk and tension. Because in the original you could run around a corner and be like, ‘Aw fuck, there’s some guy standing there and now he’s going to shoot me.’ We wanted to make sure the game was tactical but that there was still a chance to gamble.

Thee’s still room to make you walk into a situation and say, ‘Oh boy…I have messed up’, and the dread is part of that experience. Or like say I take a shot and I don’t kill the enemy with it, you think, ‘Man, this next turn he’s going to kill my guy, he’s going to kill my guy!’

And when playing with a human person?

Well we had to be sure that we still had those moments, and like I guess another human player replaces that tension with a new tension of like, you really don’t want to lose to that person. You also cant predict what humans will do or what they’re going to bring on to the battlefield in multiplayer.

You start to look and think, ‘is that all of their units?’ and you start doing math in your head like, ‘can he afford anyone else? Am I forgetting someone?’ You always see like two units and you’re like, ‘what’s he doing with just a Chrysalid and a Cyberdisc?’ The tension like that is always pretty strong.

Although you use a point system in multiplayer to keep things balanced, how difficult was it to ensure that there was no one, unstoppable cocktail of units that could win easily every time?

Yeah it is difficult, and that’s where the points do come in, because to be honest with you, I’m not naive, and I know that when we we put this game out – within about a week maybe – someone’s going to be like, ‘yeah…double Muton berzerker and a Cyberdisc is like, unbeatable’ Then we’ll be like, ‘holy shit, that is pretty unbeatable.’

But we haven’t found that yet. I will say there is one thing – I’m not going to say what it is – but there’s already one we know we’re going to adjust the points for. It worked fine with before QA, but those guys find things, and we’re always like, ‘what the f**k?’ as they find an unbeatable strategy.

They are like water through stone, if you leave one stone they will find it. So the idea is that this is sort of a crowd-sourced design because we all found certain things that needed fixed or were overpowered. We’re tracking the stats of every multiplayer match played so we can see if people are winning most often with a particular squad make-up.

We can then take a look at that, and if we see everyone winning with X/Y/Z unit types, then we’d bump the unit cost up a little. If we can prove why that’s tactical and fair, we can adjust that. We can even do it without a patch too, and change things dynamically when we want.

That’s the nice thing, because we don’t want to mess with the units. First, we want them to be the same as the single player units, and second, when people learn how to use a unit well, we don’t want to be like, ‘oh here, that ability does something else now.’

Instead we want to be like, ‘yeah, we know you liked that unit, but now he’s just more expensive. You can’t afford two now. Now you can only afford one and a bunch of other units.’ The point system makes it nice, it allows us to balance easily, and allows people to go crazy with slot strategies.

Strategy games are becoming even bigger on the tournament circuit going forward. Could you ever see XCOM hitting that scene?

I would love to see XCOM tournaments. Like when I watch DotA, I love watching tournament play just to see the skill of some of these gamers. It’s like watching someone who is a master rug weaver, and you’re like ‘I don’t know anything about weaving but that motherfucker can weave a rug.’

When I watch guys play DotA or League of Legends or something like that, and you think ‘how the fuck are they doing that?’, it makes it fun to watch. But yeah I’d love to see XCOM tournaments because the strategy is less subtle.

Strategy in those other games aren’t as clear because they’re in realtime and continuous. You have to figure out like, ‘oh they’re going back there because they’re getting ore.’ But with XCOM the tactics are a little more forward, a lot chunkier.

So I think it would be a lot of fun to actually watch those matches because we love watching them over people’s shoulders, but it’d be fun to watch as you’d go, ‘oh my god, I never thought of that that tactic’, and so on. I’d love to see it, because it is sort of like speed chess, and it’ll be interesting to see how that develops.

And in the spirit of keeping the game fair, you will be watching online play closely to root out any exploits of bugs. Is it fair to say that – come launch day – your job will only just be beginning in that regard?

Yeah, and I’ll tell you, I cannot wait to start playing online. It’s one of those rare things like – you know who Todd Howard from Bethesda is right?

Yeah.

Well he said that whenever a game of his comes out – these guys are just down the street from us actually back home – he’ll go to some store to wait until someone buys his game for the first time.

That’s like closure for him, just watching someone in the store – that sounds creepy – picking it up and buying his game. That’s just closure for him because when he started making games, he wasn’t making them like Skyrim – you know, like seven million copies sold – he had to work hard for quite a while.

So like, I want to be there and my big closure will be going online and to have someone kick my ass at my own game. That’s what I want, and I probably won’t be able to last long until I go online and have someone just destroy me.

Then I can say, ‘OK, this is good, it’s in someone else’s hands now.’ So yeah we’ll definitely be watching from a personal and balancing standpoint, collecting stats from every game and looking at them for trends.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 October 12 across Europe. The demo’s out now.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/17/xcom-enemy-unknown-video-preview-check-out-the-first-mission-here/feed/5XCOM: Enemy Unknown PAX panel – “A Thousand Stupid Ideas on the Road to Glory”http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/13/xcom-enemy-unknown-pax-panel-a-thousand-stupid-ideas-on-the-road-to-glory/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/13/xcom-enemy-unknown-pax-panel-a-thousand-stupid-ideas-on-the-road-to-glory/#commentsThu, 13 Sep 2012 19:46:06 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=296992XCOM: Enemy Unknown was at PAX, and if you missed out on the panel conducted by Firaxis, it’s posted below. The video is titled: “A Thousand Stupid Ideas on the Road to Glory,” and in it the four leads discuss the development process and some of the ideas which didn’t make it into the game. Never-before-seen clips from very early versions of the game are also tossed in for good measure. Enjoy. XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 October 11. Thanks, Blue.

Speaking to Killscreen, Enemy Unknown lead designer Jake Solomon said Enemy Unknown’s general alien design began with a classic “grey” template and built from there.

“The first UFOs are disc-shaped, because we wanted it to start in the same place where the original game did, which came from a very campy sense of UFO mythology – The X-Files was very popular when the first games were made,” he said.

“One of the new aliens we’ve shown off is this tall, slender man in a suit. He’s really bizarre – he’s incredibly flexible, he can leap really high – it’s a very creepy thing to see the human form extended and twisted. That came from the same place of UFO mythology – we looked at Men in Black, the infiltrator in a black suit. Again it’s not necessarily campy, or campy in a bad way, but the player already has a back-story about aliens in their minds, so we wanted to take advantage of that.”

Interestingly, the designer said the sectoid foes used to be much more human, but where altered at the request of Civilization designer Sid Meier.

“Our first version of the sectoid was much more upright – right now he’s feral and animalistic and sounds very bird-like. Before, he almost looked like a kid with this high-pitched voice,” Solomon explained.

“Sid was playing the game – this is a true story – and he just said, ‘You have got to change this. This feels like you’re shooting innocent children.'”

Speaking with Polygon, Solomon said getting PC version right while making it familiar to fans of the series was important.

“The PC version for us is a big deal,” said Solomon. “With a shooter or an action game you may be able to fall into the dangerous trap of porting the UI, but for us that was never an option.”

Solomon said one of the key factors to ensuring the game stayed true to the original was by creating two different teams for the UI: one for PC, the other for consoles.

“We’ve had two separate teams working the whole time on the UI, one on PC and one on console,” Solomon said. “We’re pretty excited that they look very different and feel very different.

[Alos], we don’t have a grid in the console version, it’s all free movement. On the PC version it was such a pain in the ass to not have a grid that we went back and added it.”

XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches in North American on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 9 and in Europe on October 12.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/08/xcom-enemy-unknown-the-pc-version-is-a-big-deal-says-firaxis/feed/4XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s narrative is a “fairly large part of the game,” will be “completely new to players”http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknowns-narrative-is-a-fairly-large-part-of-the-game-will-be-completely-new-to-players/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknowns-narrative-is-a-fairly-large-part-of-the-game-will-be-completely-new-to-players/#commentsFri, 07 Sep 2012 14:31:51 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=294912XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s lead designer Jake Solomon has said there is still much regarding the game which has not been revealed.

Speaking with RPS, Solomon said much of the undivulged information pertains to alien types and the game’s narrative, which is a “fairly large part of the game,” that will be “completely new to players.”

“I’ve tried to hold things back. Mystery was at the heart of the original, it was just sort of a built-in thing, you would have these moments with these completely unexpected twists and turns just in terms of how the game operated, and the mechanics and all these things that you would experience,” said Solomon.

“As you know, it’s really hard not to give everything away nowadays… but it is hard to hold large segments of your game back. I mean, we haven’t shown all of the aliens, nor will we show all of the aliens, because that’s important, but there are some concepts we haven’t talked about either.”

Solomon said even if he were to describe the mechanics of the game, its not the “mechanics themselves that make up the game,” but the way it interacts ans how the player experiences them via choices made during gameplay.

“We haven’t actually revealed any narrative either, we haven’t talked about that side of the game,” Solomon continued. “XCOM is not Mass Effect in terms of the external narrative, but there is certainly a narrative to the game and cinematic moments. That’s a fairly large part of the game that we haven’t revealed, that will be completely new to players.

“The experience of XCOM can’t be summed up in words – you can even work on the game for four years and then you play it and it just feels completely different.”

XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 October 11.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknowns-narrative-is-a-fairly-large-part-of-the-game-will-be-completely-new-to-players/feed/0XCOM: Enemy Unknown – Firaxis walks you through the latest gameplay videohttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknown-firaxis-walks-you-through-the-latest-gameplay-video/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknown-firaxis-walks-you-through-the-latest-gameplay-video/#commentsFri, 07 Sep 2012 12:56:16 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=294874XCOM: Enemy Unknown has a new gameplay video available, and in it, Firaxis lead designer Jake Solomon walks the viewer through it. This is the same presentation that was shown behind closed doors at E3 and PAX. XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 October 11.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknown-firaxis-walks-you-through-the-latest-gameplay-video/feed/0XCOM: Enemy Unknown Steam pre-orders will progressively unlock rewardshttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknown-steam-pre-orders-will-progressively-unlock-rewards/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/xcom-enemy-unknown-steam-pre-orders-will-progressively-unlock-rewards/#commentsFri, 07 Sep 2012 00:53:36 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=294603XCOM: Enemy Unknown is now available for pre-order on Steam, and comes with some sweet bonuses – as long as enough people get on board.

Firaxis and 2K are offering three tiers of rewards for those who pre-order on Steam, with each tier unlocked by a set number of purchases.

The second is a cross-promotional affair, awarding three items for Team Fortress 2 – crafty hair, a Badlands alien skin for the Pyro and a Vigilant pin. Finally, the third reward is a free copy of Civilization 5.

It’s not clear how many pre-orders are required for each step, but the gauge currently sits at just 9% so go ahead and bully your friends into buying; assuage your consumer guilt by telling yourself you’re building a ready-made multiplayer community.

Visit Steam to pre-order and check the recently-release system requirements. XCOM: Enemy Unknown will also launch on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, on October 11.

It’s challenging, but inviting at the same time. Drill it down to base level and this is essentially a game of Worms but without the exploding sheep and horrible Scottish accents.

What is strategy? Good strategy could mean picking the correct load-out in your favourite shooter as situations demand, or it could mean picking a particular character at the right time in a fighting game. It’s subjective after all.

Victory in those instances can be pretty satisfying, but when you play a game like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you’re not just making singular choices at a whim to achieve victory, you’re constantly forced to think several steps ahead.

That’s the beauty of XCOM’s multiplayer. It’s like being strong-armed into a terrifying game of speed chess where – if you’re smart enough – you can plan several steps ahead of your enemy and watch your plan unfold, crushing them underfoot. That is incredibly satisfying indeed.

Or maybe, just maybe, behind the fog of war and right under your nose, your opponent could be doing exactly the same thing to you and you don’t even know it. Before you’ve had a chance to figure out the ruse, your team are already in disarray and total failure is only a few moves away.

Fans of the original XCOM will already be accustomed to that sense of unease and the demand for smart thinking at all times. One stupid move or misplaced ability could create a weak spot in your defence, leaving you wide open for slaughter.

This new multiplayer offering is no different. At the start of each round both players are given the same point allowance that they must spend on human and alien units. The point cap is vital in keeping the game balanced, which is a smart move from Firaxis.

Stronger units cost more points as you’d expect, but even weaker units can be bolstered with a variety of add-ons such as medi kits to revive downed squad mates and weapon upgrades. Each choice is crucial to the make-up and success of your team.

So with teams selected we enter the game and take to a graveyard map that is small, but strangely atmospheric. Part of the tension comes – again – from that bloody fog of war. You have no idea where the enemy is, what they’re up to, or just how close you are to having some alien fist up in your poor soldier’s face.

The laboured approach is key, and it makes sense to spend your initial turns creating a perimeter in anticipation of where the enemy will strike first. You can spend Time Units moving across a far distance, or just take a few steps and enter Overwatch mode instead.

Overwatch is interesting because it puts your unit in a constant state of readiness. Should any enemy unit cross your Overwatch character’s line of vision, you get a free shot at them. It’s the equivalent of putting up an auto-turret for one turn. So no, definitely don’t go running and gunning if you want to last long.

Four turns of this pussy-footing around and still both teams haven’t come into contact with each other. But we’re definitely ready for the clash, with our light troops at the front, heavies and snipers in the back, as well as some floating alien Cyberdiscs hovering too high for the enemy to hit with ease.

How can we lose?

Well, ‘quite simply’ is the answer, as an hulking enemy alien rushes unexpectedly from the shroud and smashes our light gunner over the head repeatedly until they die. Then our opponent’s backline rolls into sight and we realise they’ve chosen a better assortment of units than us.

Crap.

There is no time for dicking about now, as priorities shift and strategies change to suit the madness unfolding before us. Realising the alien brute is a melee-only class, we use our Cyberdisc to hover out of reach and pepper him with plasma shots.

He goes down after a few turns, but in that time the enemy has killed two more of our humans and revealed their own Cyberdisc. Retreat is now the only option. XCOM’s movement options are smart in that they allow you to snap units to cover, so we enter a game of cat and mouse with the enemy, moving slowly, staying low and going into Overwatch.

The tension starts to subside a little as this new defensive approach seems to be working, but in a moment of panic we reload when we should have Overwatched, leaving us standing right in front of the enemy’s Cyberdisc.

That moment when you realise you’ve royally messed up, and you get hat sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach is another familiar feeling among XCOM veterans. It very much applies here. The enemy’s Cyberdisc pulverises our exposed troop in seconds and we want to kick ourselves.

Almost triumphant, our opponent thinks he’s got us on the ropes and starts rushing us, only to be ambushed several times by units in Overwatch. Now the score is about even, but the tension, that constant stress still won’t subside.

We use our flying Cyberdisc to hover over the roof of a crypt and out of the enemy’s line of site, emerging every so often to launch bouncing grenades. It takes longer, but it works and we kill off a few more enemies until only one remains.

Now it’s our turn to rush in. We sent our remaining troops in for the kill and even though they’re badly beaten up, they swarm the remaining heavy gunner and claim victory in one final turn. It’s truly exhilarating stuff

Although XCOM multiplayer is turn-based it’s always against a tight clock. In each small window of time you must remember to reload guns, check lines of sight, mentally note hit success rates, change between fire modes, and much, much more.

It’s challenging, but inviting at the same time. Drill it down to base level and this is essentially a game of Worms but without the exploding sheep and horrible Scottish accents. But it’s shame that so few games challenge the mind so profusely yet still manage to be fun.

This is what makes XCOM: Enemy Unknown a nostalgic experience, because – and it sounds trite – they really don’t make them like they used to, and that bodes very well for long-time fans of series indeed.